Tag: Dave Nellist

In the local elections due to take place on Thursday 3rd May, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) are standing in 5 seats in Coventry. We have outlined previously our reasons for standing. We carry this message from Dave Nellist, who is our candidate in St Michael’s ward. We also urge support for the TUSC candidates in the 4 other wards – Dave Anderson (Radford), Isla Windsor (Sherbourne), Michael Morgan (Henley) and Rob McArdle (Lower Stoke).

If you are intending to vote for TUSC, want to get involved in our campaigns or join the fight for socialism, please fill in the form at the bottom.

We need a Coventry that works for ordinary people, not the property developers and landlords!

While tax havens are protected, your hospitals, schools and local services are under the gravest threat ever from this government that only cares for the rich.

Yet Coventry’s Labour Council offer no resistance to the Tory diktats to cut and privatise. Instead they dutifully pass on the cuts – this year they are raising Council Tax by nearly 5% whilst cutting our services! The Council have done little or nothing to stand up to the government.

The Council put the corporate interests of the University, landlords and developers ahead of local people whilst students are pushed in to even more debt through sky high rents – for the ‘crime’ of wanting an education.

It is a disgrace that so many people find it so hard to get decent housing in our city whilst massive profits are made by the few.

Jeremy Corbyn rightly says austerity isn’t a necessity, but a political choice, and our Council keeps making the wrong choices. TUSC will vote against cuts and defend your services.

We need a council that defends working class people in Coventry

Labour councillors are saying that they have ‘opposed government austerity measures’ – what they have actually done is cut over 1,000 jobs, increased charges for school transport for children with disabilities and are planning attacks on their own workforce and much more.

We need councillors to oppose austerity not in words but in deeds. The Tory government is weak – we can win back the money stolen from our city , but that won’t be done if the Council keeps making cuts!

Capitalist austerity is causing misery for tens of thousands in our city, so please help us save services from this government.

Please vote Socialist on Thursday and help us build real opposition to austerity and the system that breeds it.

Let us know if you are voting Socialist, want to get involved or join our movement!

Socialists with the local community prevent bedroom tax eviction in Charterhouse

May 3rd will see local elections take place in Coventry, with 18 seats (one third of the council) being contested.

Nationally the Tories continue to show that they are not “strong and stable” but weak and wobbly. The 2017 general election called by Theresa May was supposed to follow the Conservative script – an increased majority for May, with Corbyn’s Labour suffering. The actual results were very different. We predicted that Corbyn’s anti austerity policies would be popular despite the constant sabotage of the Labour right wing. The outcome showed that working class people are looking for change – not surprising given year after year of austerity cuts.

Unfortunately Corbyn’s anti austerity leadership has not yet been reflected in Labour Councils across the country, and Coventry is no exception.

We have outlined previously how we think the council should be opposing the cuts by refusing to pass on Tory austerity and campaigning to win back money stolen from Coventry by central government, a strategy which has obtained support at a national level within the local government trade unions as well as union branches locally. Sadly, instead of using some of the substantial reserves (which have now risen to over £100 million since 2010) to fund services and hold down council tax whilst a campaign is built, they have chosen to reduce library services, increase charges for children’s disability transport and made cuts to community centres and adult education. Coventry is suffering massively from the crisis of capitalism – we need public representatives who are going to help organise resistance to these attacks.

In recent elections the Socialist Party, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, has stood widely across the city, including standing in all 18 wards. We wanted to ensure that there was an anti austerity and socialist voice when both of the main parties offered more of the same, pro cuts pro big business polices – this stance being supported by several thousand votes across the city. In the 2017 general election we took the decision not to stand in order to support Jeremy’s battle against the Tories – we distributed over 15,000 leaflets outlining why the Socialist Party supported Corbyn’s policies, and why they needed to be extended further.

In 2018 we recognise that Jeremy Corbyn is attempting to build on his anti austerity message at a time when the Tories are on the ropes. Therefore we will not be contesting all wards, but will be standing in 5 – St Michaels, Radford, Lower Stoke, Henley and Sherbourne.

Whilst recognising Jeremy’s position and so standing in fewer seats, we are continuing to fight austerity and the capitalist crisis using every opportunity we have, whether that’s taking part in campaigns to save the NHS and other key services, helping to build stronger, more militant unions, or standing in elections.

We will be continuing to put forward the idea that councillors do have a choice to oppose the cuts, both in the council chamber and on the streets, and that working class people should not pay for the capitalist crisis. Given the latest increase in PFI car parking charges at Walsgrave we will continue to call for these Profit from Illness schemes to be scrapped.

We will be arguing that to end the situation where thousands of Coventry kids are living in poverty we will need to create a socialist society that puts ordinary people before profit. A socialist society that through public ownership of the key sectors of the economy including the banks, can plan the enormous resources that exist for the benefit of the majority.

We urge you to support our candidates in the wards where we are standing, attend our public meeting, help our campaign by for example making a donation, putting up a poster or volunteering to distribute leaflets. We also would encourage you to think about joining the Socialist Party – help us build a mass socialist movement armed with the policies that can defeat capitalism once and for all.

Socialist Party members campaigning against the Tories. Photo by Paul Mattsson

Coventry Socialist Party would like to send Xmas greetings to all members and supporters in what has been a busy 2017. We would like to thank all those who have helped us during the year, whether you donated to us, signed our petitions, came to our meetings, bought our literature or aided us in any other way.

In 2017 the capitalist system once again showed us it has nothing to offer other than growing inequality, attacks on the NHS and education, environmental damage, austerity, racism and much more.

In 2018 the ideas of socialism and Marxism will be needed more than ever to combat the capitalist crisis and show a way out for working class people. In working class communities, in the trade unions and amongst young people, the Socialist Party will continue to put forward bold socialist policies as the way forward.

We encourage everyone to think about how you can help us in the vital task of building a force for socialist change. Can you make a donation to our Fighting Fund? Whether £1, £5 or £50, it all helps fund the fight to transform society. Please click here to help out.

We are very pleased to announce that our main speaker will be former Labour MP Dave Nellist.

The Russian Revolution was the greatest event in human history – it saw the overthrow of Tsarism and the abolition of capitalism with the workers taking power led by the Bolsheviks.

With capitalism currently in a deep crisis and socialism increasingly on the agenda in Britain and around the world we will be looking back at what happened in 1917 and what the lessons are for today’s struggles. This will be an excellent meeting not to be missed!

An election day message from Dave Nellist and Coventry Socialist Party

Dave Nellist, National Chair of TUSC

The last time I voted Labour in a general election was thirty years ago, in 1987. I was expelled by the party just before the 1992 election for refusing to back down in my opposition to the Poll Tax and for refusing to disassociate myself from those in the Militant who were the main (and successful) organisers against it.

Seven years ago I helped co-found, with Bob Crow, the late elected leader of the transport union the RMT, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition because you couldn’t get a cigarette paper between the any of main political parties. All stood for making ordinary people pay for the recession of 2008 triggered by the gambling and speculation of the banks.

Well now, in this election, you can tell the difference between the Labour and the Tory leaders.

Putting my old backbench colleague Jeremy Corbyn into No. 10 Downing Street today would make a major change to so many people’s lives in Coventry.

If Jeremy wins today thousands of 17 and 18 year olds in our city could wake up tomorrow morning knowing they could go to university in September without the fear of a £50,000 debt at the end of three years – and with an acceleration of housebuilding, they could look with more confidence at having their own home in the future.

People in low-paid work could look forward to a 50% pay rise, as the national minimum wage is raised to a more decent level of £10 an hour.

Health workers, teachers, police and council workers – in fact all in the public sector – could look forward to an actual pay rise as Labour has promised to scrap the 1% cap on public sector pay increases, which has been in place for the last five years whilst inflation has eroded the real value of that pay.

And some workers at Walsgrave Hospital, paying hundreds of pounds a year to park at work, could benefit by another pay rise when hospital car parking charges are scrapped –and many thousands of familes would be freed from a charge to visit sick relatives or friends.

Those and many other changes – for example ending the cuts in education and health, giving the public ownership again of rail, mail, water and parts of the energy industries – could give a glimpse of a different way of running society, the first steps in a socialist direction.

And it wouldn’t be ordinary people paying the price, rich corporations and the richest 5% in the country would have to shoulder more of the burden they’ve escaped in recent years – their taxes would go up, but not for the 95% majority.

So voting Labour in Coventry could make a huge difference today; and I’ve not been able to say that for thirty years.

Now that’s not to say I agree with everything Labour’s doing. I think they were wrong not to support Scottish independence linked to a socialist programme (and they have lost 50 seats because of it); they were wrong not to stand in the traditions of Tony Benn and Bob Crow and argue for a socialist Brexit last June; they should be promising an end to all council cuts for example in libraries, youth clubs and community centres; and I certainly don’t support spending £200 billion over the next 30 years on a replacement to the Trident nuclear missile system.

But Teresa May and the Tories stand for more austerity – Jeremy Corbyn would challenge that.

Teresa May and the Tories would let rich individuals like Richard Branson and wealthy corporations own our essential public services, such as rail, mail, water and energy – Jeremy Corbyn would challenge that.

But for Jeremy’s challenges to succeed – when the whole of the press, media and Establishment would try to undermine his efforts – he’s going to need more help even than your vote today.

Just like we’ve marched on the streets to defend the NHS or oppose the war in Iraq, we’re going to have to organise to defend Jeremy if he gets into No. 10 from the powerful rich vested interests that don’t want you to have free health and education, higher wages and more secure employment, decent homes and a future to look forward to – if it means their profits and rich lifestyles have to pay for it.

We need to build a powerful socialist organisation in Britain that can take the fight for a new socialist society forward, whoever wins on June 8th. The Socialist Party is trying to do that.

So, vote Labour in Coventry today, and let’s get Jeremy into No. 10. And join us in the Socialist Party to fight for a socialist future. Fill in the form below!

We are holding a public meeting to do discuss the election results and how we can continue the fight on Tuesday 13th June, 7.30pm at Methodist Hall, Coventry City Centre, CV1 2HA. The Facebook event is here.

Dave Nellist sets out support for Jeremy Corbyn in TUSC election broadcast

Dave Nellist, National Chair of TUSC

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition election broadcast was released today, featuring former Coventry Labour MP and Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist. The video explains why TUSC is supporting Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity programme in this election, and is not standing any candidates.

Please watch and share the video!

Want to support Corbyn and fight to change society? Join the Socialists!

Dave Nellist, the national chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and member of the Socialist Party today appeared on the BBC Sunday Politics show. Dave was interviewed about TUSC and our position towards the general election. Dave talked about Jeremy Corbyn’s anti austerity policies, Brexit and more.

You can watch Dave below. If you agree with Dave and want to help build support for socialist ideas, please fill in the form at the bottom